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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24847096">Agonas</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaelumLapis/pseuds/CaelumLapis'>CaelumLapis</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Smallville</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:36:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,710</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24847096</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaelumLapis/pseuds/CaelumLapis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He shakes it off and watches Clark’s body angle up, curl into itself, and collide with the water, disrupting its lazy peace and Lex’s life in metaphor.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Agonas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer is, I don’t own them, not even a little.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="has-text-align-justify">August leaves the night air thick and still, heavy with palpable condensation. It lingers, motionless and sluggish, coating his skin with a faint sheen of sweat that never goes away. He has spent hours battling the suffocating touch of the air against his body, but sleep remains as elusive as a breeze. He abandoned the upstairs bedroom in late June, and not even opened windows on the ground floor can drive away the heat baked into the stones of the castle during the day. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex pushes up on his elbows, blue moonlight painting geometric shapes against his chest and arms. There is a lazy, slow twitch beneath his skin that shudders through his shoulders, settles into the line of his spine, and lurks just below his left eyebrow. Despite the luxuries afforded a Luthor, he cannot find the position of his limbs or the precise combination of pillows, that missing <em>thing </em>that stands between him and sleep. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">His body is restless and weary, his mind weaving countless scenarios and ideas, business meetings and phone calls mingling with the required social appearances and sporadic thoughts related to nothing in particular. He thinks of Clark as well, but this is so often the heartbeat to his breathing, the undertow to his ocean. He considers this, sliding from the bed to pad on silent feet across the room, moonlight dappling across his skin. It is difficult to recall a time when he has not thought of Clark, and longed to decode that riddle. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex can recall that somewhere on the grounds, just before the formal gardens merge gently into carefully cultivated natural landscaping, his father had insisted upon a likeness of the Neptune Pool. It is not quite as ostentatious as the original, but the basic design is similar. He wonders idly if anyone has ever used it, and decides that he will take his chances. Shrugging into a lightweight robe, Lex opens the patio door with a faint click, stepping out onto the smooth stones of the patio. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Outside, the air is thick with sluggish summer heat and the soft trilling drones of crickets and cicadas. A malleable and humid mist shrouds the edges of the trees and hedges, and the cloying, sweetish scent of slowly baking greenery washes over him as he strides across the damp grass. A tiny hint of a breeze flutters the edges of his robe, cooling the sweat that shines on his skin as colonnades materialize in the darkness and clinging mist. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">The first splash is easy enough to discount as a natural occurrence, but there are more, and by the fourth Lex is certain that the pool is occupied. He arches a brow, pausing just before the short impressions of stone steps that lead down to the pool. The splashes are nothing loud, just a slick wet stirring of water almost like the damp grass that pushes against the soles of Lex’s feet. It is too obvious to ignore, and subtle enough to be as much a part of the night as the moonlight. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">He can see the pool now, its effortless logical shape edged by simple stonework and backed by a marble gazebo that is styled after a Grecian temple. There are four statues at the corners, elegant women in white robes holding slender vases tipped down toward the pool, feeding it steadily with melodious and reassuring streams of water. The depths of the water are illuminated with the bluish white glow of underwater lights, revealing a dark shape that cuts the water with the precision of a scalpel, back and forth in an unwavering rhythm. Lex knows who it is at exactly the same moment he sees him.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Irony as heavy as the night air, and in many ways just as stifling. Clark is all angles and muscles bunching and loosening, dropping beneath the surface of the water and silencing the quiet splashes of his progress through it.  Lex takes the steps down to the pool and leans against the cool surface of one of the marble women. He watches Clark navigate the rippling glass of the water, and wonders if that bastard really thought he could sneak the use of the pool without being caught.  Apparently he did, because there he is, swimming laps as if he is training for the Olympics. Such a Kent thing to do, even his use of aesthetics seems somehow industrious. Lex knows Clark well enough by now to imagine that this is how Clark must have justified the idea to himself, that if he refrained from enjoying the experience he would feel less guilty over it. Lex leans a little closer and just watches, because a certain amount of mutual respect is expected between friends, and if Clark thinks he can covertly use Lex’s pool, then Lex thinks he can covertly use that misstep to study him. He cannot help a faint smile at this, an expression that slowly fades with the passage of time and the realization that Clark is not coming up for air.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex glances at his wrist, and silently notes the position of the slender hands on the face of his watch before returning his attention to Clark. The pool is a modest size, circular with a square offset at one end. Clark swims down the center of the pool, pausing only to twist his body around itself and double back when he reaches an edge. Another slight breeze plays against Lex’s skin, and he ignores it, his eyes focused on the water’s depths with intense concentration. The underwater lights reflect across Clark’s body on each pass he makes, heightening shadow and enhancing light in ripples that cozy up to the muscles on his back, skim across his spine, dip down and enhance the shape of his arms. Clark would, of course, swim as nature intended, and Lex wonders why he doesn’t hear more salacious stories about farm life, because they do everything but their chores and socialization naked, apparently. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Another quick glance at his wrist confirms that he’s been watching for about eleven minutes now since he started timing it, and Clark is still under, still swimming. Lex would be concerned, but this is <em>Clark</em>, and he wears weird as well as Lex wears Armani, which is to say often and with a style purely his own. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">It seems perfectly appropriate that the lights playing over Clark’s skin are not interrupted by anything as mundane as clothing. Lex eyes his watch again to distract himself from examining that last thought too closely. It is roughly fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds before Clark’s head pops up from the water, shaking from side to side as he showers the surface of the pool with spray. He rubs his hands over his eyes and blinks several times, his gaze wandering to Lex and the statue. Lex stares silently back at him and muses that Clark is, for all his faults,  observant when the situation wishes he were not. Clark can ignore everything except those things you wish he’d overlook.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark’s eyes widen, his face tinting pink, or perhaps flushed from the swim, but Lex finds that idea highly unlikely. Anyone who can hold his breath for roughly fifteen minutes is unlikely to be flushed by mere exercise. The silence is broken when Clark stammers wordlessly for a moment, inching toward the shallow end of the pool and within reach of his tangled pile of modest, hard-working attire. His voice drifts back toward Lex, fumbling over a flimsy explanation. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex remains standing beside the statue and watches him, because this is far too much fun. He’s beginning to think that all you really have to do in order to hear everything Clark would never tell you, is to play the silent amused game and let him fill in the quiet. Clark yanks his clothing into the pool with him and begins dressing underwater, which makes Lex smirk in amusement. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">
  <em>Sure, Clark. Get soaking wet in your t-shirt and jeans. That will help matters.</em>
</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark pulls himself out of the pool, flustered and cascading water droplets in a circle around himself, stammering on and on about how hot it is and how difficult it must be to keep a pool such as this in good condition, and Lex is only half listening. Underneath all of that is Clark wondering how long Lex was standing there, and Lex wondering how Clark can manage to hold his breath for that length of time and not be gasping for air, with a side thought that files away wet and naked Clark for later, more personal uses.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">In between padding over toward Lex and squishing with every step, Clark runs a big paw of a hand over his rumpled and soaked hair and half-heartedly apologizes while valiantly excusing his presence there. Lex decides that he can only be polite for so long. Such a pretty, pretty boy who seems so willing to drop his clothes for Lex’s pool, and honestly, did Clark think he didn’t notice that? Fifteen. Minutes. Lex gets an idea. It’s cruel, really, but then getting an early AM peep show is not precisely a gesture of goodwill when it comes from Clark. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Listening partially to the white noise of Clark droning on and on in the sticky heat of the night air, Lex takes a step forward, watching the water in the pool slosh around and settle into its now vacant status. He drops his robe from his shoulders and tosses his watch on top of it, giving Clark a look as he walks by that dares him to do something, <em>anything</em>, about that, and he dives in.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">The water hits exactly as Lex thought it would, a rush of cool like air when you’re dying for it, honest and sharp and not a little unkind to his bare skin. Underwater is an entirely different place. Quiet, white-soft light, and muted sounds, so weightless and beautiful that Lex can almost understand the appeal of coming up for air only when absolutely necessary. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">He drifts up, seeing Clark’s form in blurry colors above the water’s surface, and he almost wants to wait, to see how long he can stay under before Clark freaks out and comes after him. But if Lex wanted Clark to save him, he’d have stayed above the water. He pushes up and breaks the surface, blinking away the drops on his lashes and looking up at Clark, who is still processing naked best friend, apparently. Sometimes Lex wishes Clark were smarter, but most of the time he doesn’t. Clark blinks a few times, and Lex rolls his shoulders back, floating up and watching Clark’s eyes get wider as Lex glides up to float on his back.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Really, at some point this should stop being fun. That’s the theory, but theory is often fallible. This has yet to stop being fun, watching Clark’s innocent expression shudder and shiver, cracking down the center as Clark stands there and gapes at him. Lex dips a foot and kicks with just enough push to send a minor jet of water over Clark’s still-bare feet, and snickers to himself as that does the trick, and Clark glares indignantly at him.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">
  <em>That’s it, Clark. Get mad. Get in. This détente gets old, doesn’t it?</em>
</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">With a disgruntled sound, Clark yanks his t-shirt over his head. Lex grins, amps the dare up another notch, and side-eyes Clark for a moment before he ducks back under the water. He watches, sinking down, a slow bubble of air rising from the side of his mouth, drifting up toward a blurry form of Clark dropping his jeans. Lex can’t help but think of a bridge with a gaping hole in it, and the ceiling of his car tearing away with the same imprecise daydream-like feeling. He shakes it off and watches Clark’s body angle up, curl into itself, and collide with the water, disrupting its lazy peace and Lex’s life in metaphor.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">He moves sharply to the side, Clark’s body cutting through the water after him, and he grins into the sharp taste of chlorine and adrenaline. He drops down, angling away from the dive and countering back in a pull of bodies and resettling current that lets him grab a handful of Clark’s hair and yank. His legs wrap around Clark’s torso as he grabs hold of him and declares war.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark jerks and breaks the surface of the water with a sputtered cough, reaching back over his head, his hands fumbling against Lex’s shoulders. Lex snakes his arms around Clark’s chest and bites quickly between his shoulder blades. Unsurprisingly, Clark freezes for a second longer than absolutely platonic, and then his hands are frantically pawing at Lex where he can reach him. Lex smirks against Clark’s wet skin and holds on tighter, just <em>daring </em>him to do something about that. Clark takes the dare, and pushes up off the bottom of the pool, his body slicing back beneath the water’s surface. He is twisting to fight Lex off, dislodge him somehow, and Lex waits him out, knowing this is where the dare gets interesting. Clark won’t shake him, Lex knows this, which means Clark can either distract him, or stay under long enough to kill him. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">He digs his chin between Clark’s shoulders and narrows his eyes as the water rushes against his face, roused violently by the thrashing movements of the body against his. Clark contorts himself roughly and dives lower, drawing closer to the bottom of the pool. Lex closes his eyes and holds on, ignoring the panic in his lungs and the creeping ruddy glow beneath his eyelids. He can feel Clark surrender, darting quickly upward, the air breaking against Lex’s face as he chokes and drinks it in, opening his eyes wide. He releases his grip on Clark and kicks away from him, digging his fingers into the rough stone edge of the pool when they find it.  </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“Are you <em>crazy</em>?” Clark’s face is incredulous and angry, and Lex narrows his eyes. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“You held your breath earlier for<em> fifteen minutes</em>,” he retorts calmly, silently daring Clark to deny it, feeling a tremor of anticipation churn through his stomach. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark’s eyes widen and he shakes his head, his expression drawing in, closed and carefully blank. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex growls under his breath. “Ironic, isn’t it? Water again. The only thing missing is my car.”</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“I.. what?” Clark’s eyes are wary, his shoulders visibly tensing above the water. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“You <em>lying </em>son of a bitch,” Lex snarls, kicking off the edge and colliding with Clark in a rush of water and the sound of a surprised grunt. Clark shoves him away, sending Lex tumbling back amidst a wave of impact into the edge of the pool.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“Fuck you,” Clark spits out, his eyes raging storms above a clenched jaw.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“I <em>dare </em>you,” Lex sneers, unable to hold back a sardonic bark of laughter.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">The confusion is momentary, and then Clark’s eyes narrow further. “<em>You</em> dare <em>me</em>,” he echoes, his voice a throaty growl. Lex smirks and kicks off the side, circling slowly closer and closer to Clark. Clark’s eyes follow him, challenging and furious. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex glares back at him, his temper coiling low in his throat, bitter and acidic. “You don’t have the <em>nerve</em>. Run home to your farm and your parents and your princess.”</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">In a blur of motion, Clark devours the distance between them and slams Lex against the edge, one of his hands closing around Lex’s throat and his other hand grasping the edge of the pool. The loud crack of the stone beside Lex’s ear is a warning, and Clark’s face echoes it, hovering close and breathing in rapid huffs of air. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“You have <em>no idea</em> what I’m capable of,” Clark snarls, thinning his eyes when Lex grabs tightly at his arm near the wrist.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex sucks in a breath, feeling the fingers tighten around his throat and grimacing involuntarily. “You’re all <em>talk</em>, Clark,” he rasps out, glaring at him.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">A narrow, supercilious smile curls the edges of Clark’s mouth. “So are <em>you</em>,” he answers in a vicious whisper, and Lex can feel the seething ire writhing beneath his skin as Clark leans in and kisses him with stinging force, crushing their mouths together. Lex growls into it, bites the lip pressing against his, feels the push of Clark’s tongue as it thrusts into his mouth, combating with his own. He kicks out, striking Clark’s leg with a white-hot flare of pain. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark grunts and moves back, pulling Lex with him, the water swirling around them. He pushes against Lex, the tiles at the bottom of the pool scraping against the soles of Lex’s feet as he moves, Clark’s hand leaving his throat and closing around his arm, gripping tightly and propelling him back through the water. The first step slams against Lex’s heel and he stumbles back, submerging for a moment before Clark yanks him back above water and follows, climbing over him. The edges of the steps bite into Lex’s back and Clark’s body pushes him down, closing him in. Clark kisses him again and Lex claws at his chest, rocking his hips up against Clark, his hand sliding down to grab Clark’s ass and pull him closer, fitting them together.  Their breathing is rough and husky, short and panting sounds like drowning, Clark’s hips grinding into him, quick and angry, his face staining red with heat and need. Lex wraps a leg around Clark’s body, holding him there, urging him on, breathing into Clark’s throat and biting down, leaving marks on him that will never show on his skin. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Jerking away, Clark growls low and wraps his arms around Lex, turning him and pressing him down into the steps, Lex’s chin dipping into the water as Clark grabs the back of his neck and holds him down. “I don’t have the <em>nerve</em>,” he whispers, dark and throaty as he thrusts against him, his other hand digging into Lex’s hip and pulling him into the grind. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“I’ll go home,” he growls into Lex’s ear, his hand moving away for a moment before Lex can feel the pressure of Clark’s cock, insistent as his panting breath against Lex’s face. “I’ll go <em>home</em>,” he repeats in a growl, thrusting into him with a low moan. Lex groans, muffled and long, broken by gasps for air, “to my <em>farm</em>,” Clark slams deep into him, blinding heat and need and angry motion that leaves Lex crying out because it hurts so <em>good</em>. “And my <em>parents</em>,” another brutal blow of his hips, shoving Lex forward as the tile beneath his chin scrapes him raw, “and my <em>princess</em>.” Lex hisses and rolls his hips into it, closing his eyes and sucking in the heady weight of Clark’s body, Clark’s anger, and Clark. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“You have,” Clark pants into his ear, “no idea,” he slams into Lex again, “what I,” another crushing thrust of his hips and Lex is crying out again, digging his fingers into the tile, pushing himself up and back against Clark, “could do to you.” Clark’s hand slides down, bruising Lex’s hip, wrapping around his cock and squeezing until Lex whimpers, then moving slow and ragged, twisting him up into currents of red and sparks, need and pain and <em>need</em>.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark’s moan shudders over Lex’s ear, a humid caress as his face presses into Lex’s throat, biting him, his fingers tightening slightly against the back of Lex’s neck. It winds him tighter, the screaming of his nerves and the sibilant hiss of Clark’s breath, and Lex’s eyes fly open, staring up at the silent colonnades above him, so like a temple. His breath catches in his throat as he screams behind his teeth, tasting the blood of his tongue, the thick fear lurking in the back of his throat, tangling with heat and suffocating for breath as he comes into the water and Clark’s fist. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">“I’m all <em>talk</em>,” Clark hisses brokenly into his skin, rutting in violent jerking movements against him, his body tensing and his groans stifled against Lex’s throat, whimpering and sucking in air as if he’s dying for it. Lex groans and reaches back, clawing his fingers into Clark’s hip and pushing him on, frantic thrusts that tense and snap, stiffening into a gasped whisper of “Lex,” as Clark slumps over him, his breath rough and ragged. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">A moment of stillness and then Clark is pulling back, splashing as he moves away. Lex glances over his shoulder, watching Clark’s face. He stares back him, shock and underneath it, a quiet plea in his eyes. Lex shifts slowly, easing his body down to sit on the steps, his shoulders submerging into the water as he returns Clark’s gaze. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Clark bites his lip, turning away and hefting his body from the pool, crossing quickly to his damp clothes and pulling them on. He glances over his shoulder as Lex rises from the water, standing still and silent between the colonnades. Clark runs a hand over his hair, and the plea in his eyes fades away. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">The silence curls around them, heavy and suffocating in the heat of the night air. Clark opens his mouth and then closes it, his jaw set firmly as he turns and walks away, fading into the mist that clings to the edges of the greenery. He pauses once, and turns his head slowly, his face profiling in the dim and ever-present light of the moon. Lex watches him, the slow breath he pulls in from the stuffy heat around him. Clark breathes out almost audibly, turning back and walking again, the line of his shoulders crooked and low, as if the weight of his thoughts will break him. It hits Lex like a punch when you’re least expecting it, the impact of a car through a bridge, ice cold as the water, bitter with the taste of metal.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">Lex leans down, his fingers clenching into the soft cloth of the robe as he pulls it around himself. He steps back toward the looming shadow of the manor, his movements slow and mechanical, his mind reaching for countless scenarios and ideas, business meetings and phone calls mingling with the required social appearances. </p>
<p class="has-text-align-justify">And Clark, always Clark.</p>
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